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11/11/98 - Wednesday's News:	Click for Current News Page
More on CDT 3.02/OS 8.5/Mulitsession CDs: Arthur Adams responded to today's earlier post with his experience: " Mike, In response to the comments about CD-ROM Toolkit 3.02 and OS 8.5. I continued to use 3.02 for the first week or so after upgrading to 8.5, but also noticed a number of intermittent problems. Notably. it would freeze on occasion while accessing files from a cd. While it would mount the later sessions from a multisession disk these were the ones that were more likely to freeze when accessed. Finally gave up on 3.02 and have gone back to using APS CD-ROM 1.3 without the auto-cache extension (got this a while ago with an APS CDR drive and this is the first I have really used it). I think this is their newest version, and while caching doesn't seem to work the driver appears to work fine, albeit somewhat slowly. But at least it is stable and since my drives are HFS+ I wasn't able to use caching with CD-ROM Toolkit anyway. I hope this is a temporary solution and I plan to migrate back to CD-ROM toolkit once they get it working right. So far this is the only casualty I had with the upgrade from 8.1 to 8.5; I've either been lucky regarding many of the reported issues or have utilized acceptable work arounds for software such as Paperport and some audio software. One thing I will stress is that for the six machines I deal with there were some initial problems, all of which were addressed by either fixing SCSI busses with improper termination ( the CD Rom drive on on my Power Computing machine had improper termination) or through replacement of OEM cables with teflon and appropriate concern for termination power settings. I think many issues involving 8.5 may actually stem from the fact that it seems to be less tolerant or hardware problems; particularly those concerned with the scuzzy busses. This may in fact be the common thread for some of the reported disk issues for which no common thread has appeared. As always, a personal thanks for your efforts and good works for the mac community. Arthur Adams " OS 8.5 contains a revised SCSI manager, to fix some Apple G3 issues and may also have other changes. SCSI termination has been one common reason why installs were unrealible, but can't say if that is the cause for the total HD failures some report. However since termination problems can cause data errors, it's possible the mode pages were corrupted in these drives that were DOA after the upgrade, which was my original guess as to why they did not boot. Thomas Perrier reports no problems with CDT/8.5 and notes a settings tip: " Hi ! I have no problems with CDT 3.0.2, Mac OS 8.5, multisessions CD-Rs and a TEAC 32x. Your reader should make sure the mounting options are properly set, in particular the "Search every track for possible data to mount" check box. Thomas Perrier " Update: Jonathan (see earlier post) reports this settings tip solved his problem! Carmine's (MIM) News Feed AppleTIL Updates (Wednesday:11/11/98)  Mac OS 8.5: Installing ARA Personal Server 3.0  AppleScript: Using Network Setup Scripting in Mac OS 8.5  Control Panels: Obtaining Version Information  Printers: General Information on Metric Paper Sizes  General Computers: A+ Certification Program  iMac: Some features of Network Assistant 3.5 not supported  Capturing Video: Crash Occurs When Capturing Single Frame  Battery Tools 2.0: Read Me File  ARPLE CD: How To Perform Manual Install  LaserWriter Printers: Memory Configurations  Speech Setup Characters: Changing Names  iMac: Read Me Mac OS 8.5: Error -192 Opening Launcher  iMac: USB FAQ (4 of 4)  MS-DOS/Windows: Downloading Executable Macintosh Files  Connection Kit for Macintosh 2.0: Creating Import Template  Fodor's Europe: Brief Description  Connection Kit for Macintosh 2.0: Exporting Application Data  Information Alley: Volume 2 Issues Index  Troubleshooting Windows NT WebObjects 3.5.1 Installations  Daylight Savings Time: Places That Do Not Observe  Additional Header Files for WebObjects 3.1 and 3.5.1  Using Netscape SSL with WebObjects  Data Type Storage Sizes for Mac Westlake Interactive has a status update on Falcon 4.0 (in Alpha stage) and Klingon Honor Guard (playbable stage, hoping for Xmas release). KHG is based on the Unreal engine, see the Unreal News page for a recent post on how to use KHG maps in Unreal. = [2:00 PM Update] = Today's Unreal Tips and Tricks page has notes on generic voodoo II driver/card compatibility, a new Route 66 map for Unreal, tips on starting your own Unreal server and summary reviews of three new single player maps. OS 8.5/CDrom Toolkit/Multisession CDs: Jonathan S. writes regarding multi-session Cds and CDT 3.02 under 8.5: " Hi, I am wondering if you have any idea why CD-ROM Toolkit 3.02 wont mount any session after the first one on multisession CD-R discs? At first, I thought 3.02 worked since I was runnning 8.5GM until I received my free 8.5 CD from volunteering for Demo Days. With GM, every session was mounted. But stability problems and a weird incompatability with Vicom Internet Gateway 5.0 (would lock up upon initial launching, a force quit and relaunch would solve it) prompted me to reinstall 8.5 from the CD I received in the mail. Lo and behold, I received an interesting tradeoff... Vicom now works properly, but now I cannot see other sessions on multisession CD-Rs. Any clue? I have a Teac 516S in a PowerCenter Pro 210. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. " Update: The Settings Tip above solved the problem Jonathan reported later. FWB claims CDT 3.0x is compatible with 8.5, with the caveat that caching is not compatible with HFS+ according to their website. I've avoided 8.5 so I can't comment on this but welcome any reader comments. Mike Collier is asking if anyone had successfully used a Jackhammer with LinuxPPC. So far he's not had any luck according to his report. If any readers have been able to get this combination working please contact me. 3Dfx Surprise at Comdex?: As mentioned here last week, 3Dfx is promising to 'knock your socks off' at Comdex on Nov 16th. The initial rumors were of a 3rd generation Voodoo card but now I hear stories of a Banshee 2 and all sorts of things in between. After the big dissapointment over the monkey (Power of 2) teaser at their site awhile back some feel the announcement will be simply a Quantum Obsidian X24 clone (see my review) - dual Voodoo II on one card. Who knows for sure but it will be interesting to see. Code names Rampage and Avenger are being talked about but we will have to wait and see. On a related note VillageTronic is to show their Mac Banshee at a show in Germany this month as well. [Update: for reviews and articles on the later 3dfx cards like the Voodoo3, Voodoo4 and Voodoo5 - see the Video articles page or my www.mac3dfx.com sidebar links.] Macs Only! has a Hands-On Review of Funnel Web v2.5 web site analysis tool. Version 2.5 is a significant update to version 2.0 released during Macworld '98. Theimac.com has new articles on Reader Report: Best Buy Launch Follow-up and iMac SCSI Card Update 11/10/98 Retrospect Updates: Retrospect 4.1A Updater Fixes a problem that occurs when Retrospect is run on an AppleShare IP 6.x Server. This problem can keep users from logging in to the ASIP Server. Retrospect 4.1 Driver Update, Version 1.6 Updates Retrospect 4.1 to support new CD-RW drives. It also fixes a problem in Retrospect 4.1 which caused faster DAT drives (DDS-2 and DDS-3) on some computers to operate slower than with Retrospect 4.0. Retrospect 4.1 Client Updater Correctly updates Retrospect 4.0 Clients to 4.1. Note: Before sending tech support related questions please check the Freq. Asked Questions, Site Contents, CPU Card reviews/articles, SCSI reviews articles, Graphics card reviews, Tips/Misc, Message Boards and Help pages - in many cases the answers to your questions are there and they have far more detail than I can list in an email. For Apple G3 system info - see the G3-ZONE. News and guest reviews that don't require a reply are always welcome. I hope to catch up in the next few weeks. Thanks. PowerOn Office 98 Sale: PowerOn is offering a great price on the full version of Microsoft Office 98 - $109, including the MacEdition 5ft 10 pack CD software bundle (Dragon's Lair (Game), SiriusNet (Internet SW), Internet Executive (Instructional), Dracula Unleashed (Game), 2000 Fonts (Design), Interactive (Prince), Mayo Clinic Family Health Book (Health), Stowaway! (Game), Mad Dog McCree and Hell Cab (Game)) Creative Banshee/Voodoo II Petition: Don't forget to sign up for our Creative Labs Petition at: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/petition.html Creative Labs is a name PC game developers recognize - if they make a Mac card (Banshee/Voodoo II) that will get a LOT of attention. Tell your friends and spread the word! Looking for past articles? Check the menu frame topics links (CPU Cards, SCSI, Graphics Cards, Systems) under the logo above or in the menu frame below or check the Recent Features page. Make a Difference: Be the Difference Randy Mita, Brad Lau and I came up with a new slogan and theme for Mac advocacy - "Make a Difference: Be the Difference". We're asking that all Mac owners take advantage of every opportunity to let others know the Mac advantage. It's a grass-roots approach that will surely help.